“Get away from her,” Duke said, at the same time the elevator doors slid open.
Duke strode toward the receptionist’s desk, where Kylie had backed Xannon up against the wall. “Hand Wanda over, Kylie.”
Kylie tightened her hold on Wanda; Wanda scrunched up her face and began to cry.
Fury roared through Duke. He suppressed his instincts to rip Wanda out of Kylie’s arms; he couldn’t risk hurting her.
Kylie looked at Wanda with barely concealed disgust. “Ugh! Why would you even want this ugly thing?”
“Where were you planning to take her?” Duke asked quietly. Calmly.
Even though he felt anything but.
Kylie shrugged, glancing around shiftily. “Just out on a walk.”
Duke slowed down, still moving closer. “So you won’t mind handing her back to me. I’m capable of taking her on a walk.”
Kylie’s eyes flashed. “She’s not yours.”
“She isn’t yours either,” Duke growled. “Now, Kylie.”
Wanda reached for Duke with both her arms, wanting him to carry her.
“She’s better off elsewhere. Far away,” Kylie muttered. “What do you see in Nat, anyway? He’s fat and ugly. He isn’t worth your time. He’s just using this baby to get to you, but I found a buyer for her—”
Duke was on her even before she’d finished that sentence. He scooped Wanda out of Kylie’s arms.
Then he brought his fist up to boiling temperatures, and smashed it through Kylie’s skull.
Kylie was dead before she hit the floor.
“That was for kidnapping Wanda,” Duke snarled. “And for saying what you did about her and Nat. What are the chances that you made him disappear, too?”
She didn’t answer, but Duke was shaking too much to care.
“Um, Mr. B?” Xannon asked, his face pale.
Duke had a brief moment of regret; that might have been the first time Xannon had witnessed a death. He turned to the wide-eyed omega. “I’ll call someone about the body. Have you seen Nat?”
Xannon shrank back. Only then did it occur to Duke that he might look terrifying, with his glamour gone, his eyes glowing, his fangs extended.
He didn’t care about that, either.
Xannon’s gaze dropped to Wanda, whose skin had turned navy blue. Wanda’s eyes were glowing white, too, and her horns were tiny nubs on her forehead.
“I-I don’t know about Nat,” Xannon stammered. “Kylie was in here earlier, yelling at me. But I thought I saw her coming in with a man. An alpha.”
An alpha? Like Giblin Turkeyson?
Slowly, Duke asked, “What did that alpha look like?”
“Like a normal alpha, but angry.” Xannon shuddered. “Like he would do bad things. I would’ve called someone for help, but he disappeared right before Kylie came to yell at me. I don’t know where he went.”
Duke’s stomach squeezed. “Fuck!”
Wanda began to whimper; Duke was holding her too hard. He hurriedly relaxed his arms.
“Are you her dad?” Xannon asked. “She looks like you.”
